Senior DOJ officials knew of gunwalking in Operation Fast and Furious

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House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman, Darrell Issa, Rep- R Calif., rebuked Attorney General Eric Holder for misleading Congress about Department of Justice knowledge of the controversial tactics employed in Operation Fast and Furious.

Holder told Issa’s committee that he, and other senior officials, had no knowledge of the tactics used in Operation Fast and Furious, but documents obtained by Issa’s investigation show tactics used in the operation were approved by senior officials at the DOJ.

The documents, six applications for wiretaps “show that immense detail about questionable investigative tactics was available to the senior officials who reviewed and authorized them,” Issa wrote.

In response to Issa, Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-MD, wrote to Issa supporting Holder’s claim that he was not involved in the details of the operation. Cummings said the approval process of a wiretap application involves the shortening of the application into a memo which is then reviewed by Holder’s subordinates.

Issa quoted deputy assistant attorney general Jason Weinstein, who read the memo for Operation Fast and Furious, saying, “I did not know at any time during the investigation of Fast and Furious that guns had walked during that investigation.”

The six applications have been sealed by a federal judge, but are still available for review by members of the Committee.

In Fast & Furious, Phoenix-based ATF agents used watch-and-wait tactics on cartel-linked gun purchasers and lost track of over 2,000 weapons that slipped into Mexico.

Two of those weapons were recovered in December 2010 in Southern Arizona at the murder site of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry.